Chapter 11 – Mutants (1)
“There’s no need to chase them down and advertise in all directions.”
The skirmish between them and the goblin hunting party was hardly worth calling a battle. It was more like a hunt or outright massacre.
As her workers recovered the goblin corpses, she continued to command her forces.
She was already monitoring their nest in real-time. Capable of directly sharing the scout’s field of vision, she kept watch over the goblins’ activities while spreading out her forces.
She intended to surround the goblin nest and wipe it out in one swift strike.
If the fleeing goblins were to spread word of their existence, it could only result in losses with no gains.
‘Let us wait in ambush until nightfall.’
She decided to wait until the sun had set completely.
Eventually, the sun would set. Goblins, with their poor night vision, light their village with fires to see in the dark.
In contrast, her soldiers see just fine in the dark.
Although originally the black rot insects lived in caves where their vision wasn’t very critical, some of the prey they hunted in recent times possessed strong night vision, a trait they absorbed over hunts.
“The sun is setting.”
As time passed, the sun began to set and the surroundings darkened.
The goblins didn’t have much time left. Meanwhile, the goblin chieftain was sighing, waiting for the hunting party who hadn’t returned.
“These foolish ones, I told them they could go far, but have they gone too far? I should have sent a warrior along if I had known this would happen.”
The chieftain regretted not sending the special warrior class with higher intelligence as a leader to the group of less intelligent, ordinary goblins.
As the night approached, the chance of survivors returning was slim. Resigning himself, the chieftain decided the hunting party was gone.
“Light the fires soon. Assume those who haven’t returned are dead. If they do return, they’ll face punishment.”
The chieftain, carrying his staff, patrolled the village, ordering the goblins to place torches around.
“…Is that…?”
That’s when he noticed them.
Before the chieftain had a chance to place the fire, now the forest in front had grown dark, his eyes widened.
‘What on earth is that?’
In the darkness, a faint red glow appeared.
The chieftain stared at it as if transfixed. Then he noticed the red glow multiplying, slowly approaching.
“…!”
The chieftain’s mouth opened wide as he realized those weren’t natural eyes but constructed artificial eye-lights, consisting of countless red glowing eyes, each belonging to an enemy.
“Wha, how many are there?!”
Hundreds of red eye-lights flashed ahead, moving soundlessly and quickly.
Without realizing it, the chieftain shrieked, waking all the goblins and ordering them to prepare for battle.
“It’s too late.”
Simultaneously, she, who had possessed one of the subordinates, gave the immediate order to charge.
“Kyeeek!”
“Monsters! They’re monsters!”
In a panic, the goblins scrambled out with weapons in hand.
But the monsters that had already surrounded them charged in, breaking their defenses with their gleaming red eyes shining through the carapace.
“The arrows aren’t working!”
A goblin archer was stunned to see his arrows deflected by the approaching creatures. The arrowhead, made from the shell of the famed Urgru turtle, known for its impenetrable armor, was no match for the enemy’s carapace.
Resembling scorpions, the creatures held massive blades where claws should be and wore even thicker armor on their tails.
These shock troops broke through the goblin defenses with crossed blades, allowing countless forces behind them to flood the village.
“Ah, no! Hold your ground!”
The chieftain wailed as fighting erupted chaotically throughout the village.
He immediately sensed that the attacking force was not just a group of beasts, but a disciplined military force.
In battles between armies, victory depends on precise formations and collective strength.
This was an advantage of intelligent beings. It was the reason goblins could hunt larger beasts.
“Ah…”
But it wasn’t happening. These monsters, far larger and stronger than the goblins, quickly began slaughtering them.
The chieftain swayed as he watched his soldiers skewered by sharp limbs and pierced by venomous fangs.
“Chieftain! We can’t fight like this! We must retreat!”
“Tur!”
Of course, the goblins weren’t without hope.
One goblin, wearing armor and wielding a sword made from monster hide and carapace, managed to slash and defeat an enemy. There were a few such valiant goblins, inheritors of special traits from their forebears, fighting alongside the chieftain.
*
“Those are them. The special goblins.”
She recognized them too. These goblins, distinct by color and size, were always the key targets in her gaming sessions.
‘What would happen if I consumed them? How different are they genetically from regular goblins?’
She found herself salivating at the sight of the goblins cutting down her troops, more interested in the rewards from consuming them than in their threat.
“Other ones don’t matter. Focus on catching these.”
The regular goblins would hardly survive even if they fled.
Thus, she concentrated her efforts on the ones trying desperately to break through with the chieftain.
“Chieftain, there’s too many!”
They found themselves surrounded by much larger creatures, gasping for air.
They realized they were being specifically targeted by these crazed monsters.
“Ghh!”
In particular, the massive weight and hardened shell of the shock troops proved an insurmountable barrier.
A goblin warrior barely managed to block incoming blades from two shock troops heading straight for him with his dual swords.
“Uuuaaaahh!!”
Straining beyond his limit, he resisted the tremendous weight difference.
‘That’s mana. The core of the demon civilization.’
A power exclusively granted to demons.
She marveled at the small goblin warrior who managed to hold back her blade, viewed through the possessed soldier’s eyes.
The warrior goblin, inheriting special powers from the mother, wielded forces that transcended natural limits.
“But even that has its limits.”
She grinned as she pushed more force into her possessed arm, causing it to shatter, finally overpowering the goblin warrior.
“No! Tur!”
As the warrior’s sword slipped and his arm bent backward, the crossed blades of her shock troop swiftly severed his body in half through the armor.
The goblin chieftain slumped to the ground, horror-struck at the sight of his fallen comrade.
“Bring the chieftain alive.”
While the chieftain was lost in sorrow over the death of his comrades and capable subordinates, she ordered the massacre of all other goblins capable of coherent communication, except the chieftain.
[No more living entities are visible.]
The sun had yet to rise, but the goblin village had already been devastated.
She had hunted down the majority of goblins as planned.
There might be a few escapees, but she did not care.
“Retrieve the war spoils.”
Thoroughly prepared, the ambush went smoothly, ending in a quick victory.
The workers, and even the combat troops, proudly carried the slain goblin corpses back to the nest.
The goblin chieftain, who had resisted fiercely and was now crushed, hung helplessly from the jaw of one of her soldiers.
“This diplomatic route is inefficient.”
“It’s not that. I just want to see if I can have a somewhat normal conversation.”
The system misinterpreted her intentions on capturing the goblin chieftain, but she shook her head with a hollow laugh.
She had, since taking over as the queen in this world, finally found an intellectually stimulating adversary.
‘What do these creatures… want from me?’
With vague consciousness, the goblin chieftain could only tremble in fear, unable to understand the motives of these mysterious creatures.
